Paging systems typically use a receiver that has at least one unique selective call address associated therewith. This receiver is commonly referred to as a selective call receiver or pager. When a pager receives and decodes its address, the pager typically alerts the user to the presence of incoming information and operates to present this information. The receiving, decoding, alerting, and presenting sequence as well as other functional aspects associated with the pager are commonly referred to as the pager's personality. A unique operational personality is programmed in the pager by the service provider before delivery, and generally cannot be modified by the user or provider without returning the pager to a service depot.
Wide area paging systems for the transmission and reception of radio frequency information are well known to those skilled in the art. In the United States, wide area paging systems are licensed for operation on radio frequency carriers that are restricted to a maximum effective radiated power output of 200 watts. This power limitation and the radio frequency attenuation associated with the physical characteristics of the surrounding environment, limits the ground path propagation of radio frequency energy. A typical paging signal that is transmitted from a ground based antenna system will effectively cover an average metropolitan area of approximately 400 square miles.
Alternative approaches have been tried to increase the area of coverage for a wide area paging system. One method is the use of multiple distributed transmission sites that simulcast (simultaneously broadcast) the information signal on the same radio frequency carrier. Geographic coverage is improved using this method, but due to a critical shortage of available land-mobile channel assignments in the VHF (very high frequency) band and governmental restrictions, a service provider cannot implement this system on anything other than a in the recently approved 900 MHz nation wide paging services The nation wide paging concept uses a block of channels specifically allocated for nation wide paging services. In this system, the service provider supplies the user with a pager that uses a common receive frequency for the areas in which the person will be travelling. The user's pager will then be able to receive the correct radio frequency carrier and address information, but because of the sheer volume of information associated with a network of this kind, the message may take an hour before broadcast to the user. If the user happens to travel to a location where a different service provider has a paging system on the user's assigned radio frequency carrier, chances are that the user's pager will not function.
The aforementioned scenarios are generally not acceptable to a business user that needs their information as soon as possible. A real time messaging system is required to effectively relay information to a paging subscriber.
Thus, what is needed is an method that provides a selective call receiver with dynamic personality and local address configuration.